Patriots Journal: Team paying attention to details during bye

Tuesday

FOXBORO — On the one hand, the Patriots have a chance to use their bye week to stay fresh heading into the playoffs.

FOXBORO - On the one hand, the Patriots have a chance to usetheir bye week to stay fresh heading into the playoffs.

On the other hand, if by now they haven't come up with a routineto stay fresh all season long, an extra week isn't going to do muchfor them.

"The routine is what saves you," Pro Bowl offensive linemanBrian Waters said on Tuesday. "It's what lets you know you'reprepared. If you fall off the routine, you're going to always findyourself feeling like you left something behind. It's like packingat the last minute. You always feel like there's something youforgot. If you're prepared through the course of this week and allof next week, you'll feel prepared going into the game."

The Patriots won 13 games during the regular season, earning theAFC's No. 1 seed and the first-round bye that goes with it. They'llpractice Wednesday, Thursday and Friday - taking advantage of thechance to do the self-scouting and self-improvement they don't havea chance to do during typical weeks when they're game-planning foran opponent.

The Patriots know they'll play on Jan. 14 at 8 p.m. They justdon't know their opponent.

"Today was a good day to come in and try to clean up some thingsfrom this last week," Waters said. "Coming in tomorrow, I'm sure -I'm more than sure - that there'll be a lot of focus on details,some of the things we haven't been able to go over . . . in thecourse of a season.

"The fact that we don't know who our next opponent is gives usan opportunity to really focus on ourselves."

The Patriots have had plenty of experience with first-roundbyes. Not counting the upcoming postseason, they've been the No. 1or No. 2 seed in the AFC three times in the last five seasons andsix times in the Bill Belichick era.

That much experience gives Belichick and his staff quite a bitof information with which to work when trying to determine how hardto drive their team in the next 10 days. There's something to besaid for staying sharp, but there's also something to be said forgetting some rest - especially for a team that listed close to 20players on its injury report before its regular-season finale.

"It's no different from training camp - you look back at whatyou've done in previous years in training camp, what you've done inprevious years in bye weeks during the regular season, bye weeksduring the postseason," Belichick said.

A team that has tended to play well after bye weeks found itselfthrottled at Pittsburgh after a bye week earlier this season - abad omen in and of itself, a worse omen considering the Patriotscould wind up playing Pittsburgh in two weeks at GilletteStadium.

"After every game we always look back and look at what we didand try to be self-analytical and see what we could do better,"Belichick said. "That game is no different from any othergame."

Regardless, it'll help the Patriots' health that they don't haveto play this week. They'll instead camp out on their couches andwatch four other games - or at least the two games that will decidetheir Jan. 14 opponent.

"I plan on watching every bit of the games that I can," Waterssaid.

Pursuing O'Brien

According to reports, the Jacksonville Jaguars have receivedpermission to interview Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O'Brienfor their vacant head coaching job. O'Brien also has been linked tothe head coaching job at Penn State.

"He's done a great job for us since he's come here, but I can'treally speak to him [about] any other position," Belichick said."Our focus is getting our team prepared for the bye week here andtrying to improve the most that we can and to be ready for nextweek's opponent, whoever that is."

O'Brien joined the Patriots as a staff assistant in 2007 and wasnamed the quarterbacks coach in 2009, becoming the de factooffensive coordinator well before he was granted the title. Hepreviously coached on the offensive side of the ball at Duke,Maryland and Georgia Tech. He began his coaching career as a tightends coach at Brown, where he played linebacker and defensive endfor three seasons.

bmacpherson@providencejournal.com

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